Fullgreen Sustainability Agenda 2021
Our mission at Fullgreen has always been to make a positive impact to the health of people and the world around us. We’re really proud of how far we’ve come, but we know there is more work to be done.
This year we’ll be taking huge strides to step up our sustainability agenda with a focus on three core pillars – Health, Climate and Plastic. We’ve identified a series of partners who are driving positive change in communities and the wider world and will be working with them in 2021 and beyond to create positive initiatives that make a REAL difference.
Here’s what we have planned:-
Health for Everybody
Everyone deserves access to nutritious food but sadly it’s not the case for many people in poorer communities who struggle to get access to the right kinds of foods. The pandemic has created a surge in food insecurity with around 50 million people in the US and 1 in 10 people in the UK needing the support of a food bank to feed themselves.
Conversely, obesity is surging and diabetes has quadrupled since the 1980’s with the greatest burden falling upon low-income families.
We know that our low-carb vegetable products can help reduce these health risks, so we've joined forces with Feeding Britain in the UK and Feeding America to make regular donations to food banks across the United Kingdom and United States. Our long shelf life veg and patented technology means our products can be stored without refrigeration – enabling these charities to distribute healthy nutritious veg direct to the communities that need them most – without impacting on their limited refrigeration space.
Andrew Forsey, National Director at Feeding Britain says: “In recent months, due to both supply and storage issues, our partners have often found it challenging to acquire and offer as many fruit and vegetables as they need. While we have been working hard to help them overcome these issues, the generous support we are receiving from Fullgreen will add rocket boosters to those efforts.”
Fighting climate change
Be Reducing Food Waste
Did you know 1/3 of all food produced for human consumption goes to waste? And fresh fruit and veg are the largest contributors due to their short shelf life? Rotting food clogs up landfills and releases methane, a greenhouse gas 26x more powerful than carbon dioxide in affecting climate change. Shockingly, the volume of discarded food every year is equivalent to the use of 30M ACRES of land, 780M POUNDS of pesticide and 4.2 TRILLION gallons of irrigated water.
Fullgreen products and supply chain processes have been purposefully designed to reduce food waste: From the special process we developed to naturally extend the shelf life of vegetables without the need for preservatives; to sourcing locally grown produce; and using 'ugly veg' and portions of vegetables that tend to be thrown away by vegetable processors.
Offsetting our Carbon Footprint
By Planting Trees
Fullgreen is committed to planting 200 trees per month through our partner, One Tree Planted. Trees are key to slowing down climate change, yet deforestation continues at an alarming rate. It is estimated that between 1990 and 2016, the world lost 500k square miles of forest, an area larger than South Africa. Because trees use carbon dioxide to build their trunks, branches, roots and leaves, they are natural carbon absorbers. In fact, one mature tree can absorb up to 48lbs per year! The trees we donate will be planted in afforestation projects around the world, in communities and areas most affected by climate change.
Reducing the Impact of our Plastic Pouches
We use a special packaging material that allows us to:
• Provide long life vegetable products without the need for refrigeration.
• Preserve the nutritional goodness of our products throughout its long shelf life.
• Provide nutritious veggies anytime and anywhere they are needed.
This packaging format also uses 50% less material than rigid packaging. This means less material waste, but also it takes less energy to produce and transport.
While this packaging has a better carbon footprint than rigid or glass packaging - it is unfortunately not yet recyclable. We are working closely with our packaging partners to trial and develop a fully recyclable material by 2024. In the meantime, we are partnering with Terracycle to provide customers the opportunity to upcycle their used Fullgreen pouches.
Simply visit the Fullgreen page on Terracycle's website to request a Recycling envelope to be sent to you. Fill the envelope with as many used Fullgreen pouches as you like, affixing the pre-paid shipping label to the envelope. This will be sent back to Terracycle where the waste material will be separated, ground and pelletized so it can be upcycled to create new products.